Do you have a balanced party?

[Odhanan]

Funny, but in my games nobody wants to play a cleric. Ever.

In our group as well, people don't like healers and clerics, mainly because these are passive roles. The players like dungeoneering and facing direct threats, they like to kick butt. They love to explore. They don't like being on the defensive.

PS: I don't post anything regarding our group just yet. We still have to create the characters for this year's game.

 

[drothgery]

Hmm... my current tabletop group started as

human wizard [evoker] (later wiz/clr/Silver Pyromancer)
human rogue (later rog/Slayer of Domiel the Silver Flame)
human cleric
half-orc barbarian (later ftr/brb)

... but thanks to two PCs deaths in the Heart of Nightfang Spire, it's now

gnome bard/sublime chord
Kalashtar soulknife/illume soul
human cleric
half-orc fighter/barbarian

So we started out pretty balanced in the classical sense, and I think we're actually pretty effective right now (the only real problem is lack of a pure trapfinder; when you've got a major melee guy and a strong skirmisher, the lack of a pure blaster isn't a big problem; the cleric can Flame Strike if we really need a big boom from range).

In the PBP game I'm in, there's

Human Hexblade
Elf Sorcerer
Human Archivist (me)
Human Bard
Half-orc Rogue
Human Ranger

so it's a lot of mixed-role types, other than the sorcerer and the rogue. All the bases are covered, mostly, but sometimes it's a bit of a stretch.

 

[Kurashu]

Halfing Rouge/Sorc/Arcane Trickster (don't remember the levels)
Whisper Gnome Ranger 10
Dwarf Cleric 7/Ironbound 3
Goliath Fighter 2/Barbarian 7

I'd say we have a shakey balance. The goliath and I (dwarf cleric) are usually the ones doing most of everything though since the other two are new (pair of 13 yearolds, my brother and his friend).

 

[Gold Roger]

In the game I DM it's currently:

2 Elven Warblades lvl1
1 Human Bard lvl2
1 Elven Warlock lvl1

At first glance it seems terribly unbalanced, but it really is quite balanced.

The two Warblades focus on different disciplines. They soak up lots of damage as well as deal it out.

Between martial maneuvers, eldritch blast, umd and some offensive firespells the Bard can cast thanks to a custom feat, mass destruction and arcane firepower is easily substituted.

The Bard can use enough healing magic and items to keep people up.

The Bard is a bit further on advancement, but otherwhise the least powerfull character and she benefits the group.

I don't really use many traps and whenever I do so, nobody tries to find them anyway, even with a rogue present.

The only problem I see is that a lot of magic utility is lost, as well as stuff like restoration/cure disease/remove curse. But I guess many DMs would actually envy me for that, seeing how there won't be any magical shortcuts for them and every disease/affliction/PC dead is an insand plot hook.

 

[Nifft]

My group had one ... briefly.

Human Rogue
Human Wizard
Elf Cleric
Dwarf Fighter

I played the Cleric. The DM assassinated my PC around level 4, and a local Druid reincarnated me as a Bugbear. This annoyed me (because I was the only one with a positive Charisma bonus), and annoyed the DM (because he decided that I was now way too strong, when I decided to start taking advantege of my Bugbear strengths).

The Wizard player disappeared, and now I'm making a Human Anima Mage to journey with the party.

In the game that I DM, we have three Humans: a Wizard / Loremaster, a Wizard / Ranger / EKnight, a Monk / Paladin / PrC, and sometimes a Ranger. There's also a cohort (Warforged Fighter / Exotic Weapon Master / Occult Slayer), and the EKnight sometimes gets a squad of mid-level Luxorian Regulars (Army NPCs). They are frequently accompanied by a couple of wyrmlings, whose eggs they liberated in an earlier adventure. (Yes, at some point soon, the wyrmlings will ask "are you my mommy?"... and the wyrmlings have good Sense Motive checks, of course.)

Anyway. Not much balance. But fun seems to occur even without it.

-- N

 

[Masquerade]

The campaign that I've been DMing for the past year just came to a close. The group consisted of

Human Soulknife 4
Skarn Samurai 2 / Shugenja 2
Human Druid 4
Rilkan Urban Ranger 4
Skarn Hexblade 2 / Illusionist 2
Goron Marshal 2 / Warmage 2

The soulknife did her best to fulfill the "rogue" role. Otherwise, the bases were covered. The group was far from iconic, but it ended up working quite well.

 

[Sejs]

(My campaign)

Catfolk (+1 LA) Ranger,
Shifter Druid,
Kiloren Spirit Shaman,
Gravelorn (semi-undead, based on the warforged stats) Monk/Cloistered Cleric.

No. We're a good sight shy of balanced. The only melee takes on the brunt of the scouting, with the druid doing some backup arial recon with wildshape. We're heavy on divine casters, and completely dry on arcane casters and dedicated rogue types.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Elven Druid
Human Mage/ PrC
Human Bard/Rogue/Shadowdancer
Human Monk.

pretty close - the monk serves as pretty well as tank
the monk has also played 1/2 fiend fighter/PrC; expert/fighter/paladin and Wiz/Ftr/Phantom Knight

 

[wayne62682]

My group usually is balanced, but we typically have 5-6 players so we also have some "excess". Often though, we'll fail to have balance by virtue of everyone wants to play their own thing, and damn any sort of cohesion among the group.

 

[Nerfwright]

In Age of Worms:

Human Cleric
Elf Favored Soul
Human Bard
Human Bard
Halfling Bard
Dwarf Monk

:\

Our DM had us build our characters secretly from each other. Thank goodness one of the Bards is a decent archer-Ranger now, although the Cleric and Elf make reasonable tanks. On the other hand, "Three Bards can't be wrong!"(tm) has been a popular phrase.